Google Fights Back Against Book Settlement Critics

Google filed a strong defense of its digital books settlement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, a week before a federal judge is scheduled to hold a hearing in the protracted copyright case.

Associated Press

A Google logo on display at the National Retail Federation convention in New York.

The filing is routine and reiterates arguments the search giant has repeatedly made to defend its 2008 settlement, which allows it to distribute millions of books it scanned online in exchange for sharing revenue with rights holders. It comes as briefs objecting to various parts of the agreement — which Google has already revised once — have continued to trickle in. Technology giants including Amazon.com, Microsoft and AT&T have argued that the settlement could limit competition in the digital books market because it would give Google exclusive access to some works and usurps Congress’s authority over copyright law.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Justice Department again expressed concerns against the pact, saying the settlement reaches too broadly and “suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement: it is an attempt to use the class action mechanism to implement forward-looking business arrangements that go far beyond the dispute … in this litigation.”

In a 77-page brief to the court, Google’s lawyers fight back, responding to a range of objections by pointing to various legal precedents. The company said that it is “proper” for a class-action settlement to resolve the dispute and cites a number of business disagreements that have been settled via the mechanism. Addressing the issue of its motivations for entering the digital books space, Google pointed out that it is merely aiming to resolve the lawsuit against it.

“Every settlement is a deal, in which each side gains something and gives up something, and that is just as true in this case,” the brief read. “Plaintiffs are giving up their right to sue to challenge a range of potential future Google activities, in return for compensation and other arrangements beneficial to them. In return, Google is giving up defenses it advanced in good faith and is providing substantial tangible benefits to Rightsholders that they might never have received if Google had prevailed.”

Google also addressed concerns about competition in the digital books market by referring to the “rapidly-developing, dynamic and vibrant market in digital books,” citing news articles referencing Apple’s iPad and other devices.

The brief ends with grandiose language, emphasizing that the settlement will increase access to knowledge. “The (settlement) cannot claim to create a Library of Alexandria, and no settlement can bring back the works lost to Caesar’s fire,” it read. “But it is hoped that this compromise between authors, publishers, libraries, and a company willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to digitize so much of the printed history of humanity will be another small step toward the vision that the Alexandrian Library represents.”